Abandoned Before & After Photos
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Ruffin Church, Philadelphia
The Abandoned Building: The Ruffin Nichols Memorial Church was built in 1844 as an Episcopal church serving a wealthy Philadelphia community. Everything from its massive stone facade, lavish sanctuary to its ornate stain glass windows is a testament to Gilded Age Philadelphia. As the neighborhood declined, the congregation dwindled, and today the empty building faces imminent destruction - putting an end to the building's 160-year-long reign as the center of its neighborhood.
The original budget of 3K was quickly exceeded, as each corner of the building revealed new surprises. From a mini bowling alley and vintage parallel bars to high-quality chestnut and pristine stained glass windows, the team was able to salvage more than they imagined possible.
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Before Restoration
The Find: Gas lights from 1899. They lit up the bowling alley in the church. It looks a little rough now, but the team has plans to give the piece new life.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: Getting the objects out of the building is just half the job. The next step is bringing them back to life. After hanging for a century, the gas lamps were stripped to their bare metal and completely refinished. Equipped with a new fixture underneath and beautiful milk glass, the team was able to restore a piece of history.
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Roop's Mill, Westminster, MD
The Abandoned Building: The Roop family built a thriving farm and grist mill on their vast estate in the rural town of Westminster, MD. The mill building and farmhouse are about two centuries old with machinery dating back to the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution. These long abandoned buildings are a symbol of the days when family farms were the backbone of America.
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Before Restoration
The Find: A grist grinder. These bases were an integral part of this mill's operation. Every wood gear, cog, and post was hand-made 200 years ago, and is still intact today.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The team transformed the grist grinder into a coffee table. Now a functional piece that has a piece of 1800's history.
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Pabst Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI
The Abandoned Building: The operations of the Pabst Brewing Company were once controlled from an imposing and ornate stone castle. From this beer baron's palace, the leaders of Pabst created a brewing empire that spanned the nation. Today Pabst is still a major national brand, but its birthplace sits abandoned - a victim of corporate downsizing in 1996.
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Before Restoration
The Find: This first aid box found inside the Pabst factory was filled with everything necessary to take care of any minor injuries that could happen on the job. As a working factory with heavy machinery, it was inevitable that accidents would occur. Other items found in the Pabst Brewing Factory include a calendar on the wall in one corporate office, still turned to December 1996, when Pabst brewery shut down.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The first aid box was cleaned, stripped, and given a paint job in Pabst red, white and blue. Then it was packed with everything necessary to kick a hangover — a perfect fit for any man cave.
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Klotz Throwing Company, Lonaconing, MD
The Abandoned Building: The Klotz Throwing Company built a silk spinning mill in the rural mining town of Lonaconing, MD in 1907. The mill provided steady employment to the wives of local miners. Productive for decades, the advent of artificial thread and worker strikes led to the mill's closure in 1957. Today, the mill remains in a state of suspended animation, largely untouched for sixty years — making it the last intact silk mill in the entire United States.
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Before Restoration
The Find: This industrial wooden pushcart was handmade during the silk mill's operation. The old wood is strong with a lot of character and unique color. Although it seems like a simple object with a single purpose, Jay has a vision for this piece.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The industrial wooden pushcart has been completely transformed into a one-of-a-kind leather chair. In order to create this masterpiece, Jay took off one of the sides, cleaned up the wood and did his best to keep the original character in tact. Finally, the chair was upholstered in leather for a slick finish.
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Otis Paper Mill, Jay, ME
The Abandoned Building: The Otis Paper Mill in Jay, ME was built in the 1880s and was once the third largest paper mill in the country. Shut down in 2007, the industrial objects left behind share the story of when paper was king, and a sleepy Maine village was transformed into an industrial powerhouse.
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Otis Paper Mill, Jay, ME
The Abandoned Building: Another view of the Otis Paper Mill in Jay, ME. It was built in the 1880s and was once the third largest paper mill in the country. Shut down in 2007, the industrial objects left behind share the story of when paper was king, and a sleepy Maine village was transformed into an industrial powerhouse.
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Before Restoration
The Find: This locker was used by employees of the paper mill to hold their personal effects during the day. Each locker tells a personal story. It's likely that the lockers used in the mill were actually created in the mill using the same material as other factory items.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The factory locker has been turned into a solid, well-built cabinet. The locker was sandblasted and the metal siding removed and replaced. Salvaging the locker and turning it into a unique piece of furniture is a way of honoring the history of the mill, as well as the mill's workers.
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Owens Place Pioneer Farm, Fulton, MS
The Abandoned Building: The Owens Homestead in Fulton, MS occupies land that was originally farmed in the 1840s. Although the cottage, log cabin and barn on the land have been abandoned for almost fifteen years, the collection of century-old items they contain tell the story of one pioneer family's resourcefulness and tenacity as they blazed a trail for later civilization.
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Before Restoration
The Find: This Windsor ice box is a true vintage treasure. Windsor ice boxes were lined with metal and packed in the sides with insulating material. A large block of ice was placed at the top of the ice box. As the ice melted inside the cabinet, water would collect in a tray which could then be removed and emptied.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The Windsor freezer cabinet has been transformed into a humidor, a cabinet that regulates the humidity that might destroy dry goods like cigars or age collectible items. The original insulation of the ice box serves it perfectly in its new incarnation.
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Cotton Gin, Watkinsville, GA
The Abandoned Building: Started in the late 1800s, the Thomas Family Cotton Gin in Watkinsville, GA hearkens back to the final hurrah of the Old South's storied industry. At one time, field hands and cotton trucks were sending the region's rich harvest from this gin out to America's textile factories. Since the decline of textiles in the 1970s, the gin has been closed. Today the rusting equipment is a snapshot of a lost time when cotton was still king.
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Before Restoration
The Find: Coca-Cola was created by John Pemberton, a Civil War veteran with a morphine addiction, who hoped his new elixir would cure his ailment. This Coke freezer was kept on site in the cotton gin to cure workers' thirst. Before 1929, grabbing a soda usually meant sitting at a soda fountain. Having a Coke machine in the gin made it easy to grab a cold one any time.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: When restoring an item like this Coke fridge, the goal is to make it look like it did when it came out of a show room sixty years ago. The panels were professionally painted, and the rest was painstakingly restored by Jay and Dan. Two hundred years after its founding, the Coca-Cola brand is a leader worldwide in the beverage industry, constantly pushing into new global markets.
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Oil City Bank, Oil City, PA
The Abandoned Building: Little known today, Oil City, Pennsylvania was once a sprawling oil boomtown where business titans like Rockefeller expanded their vast fortunes. That wealth and power are evident in the Oil City National Bank, an early 20th-century skyscraper. The wealth dried up along with the oil wells, and today, the vacant bank's marble architecture and vintage furnishings are the last vestiges of the city's lost riches.
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Before Restoration
The Find: This flag pole stand was built with masterful craftsmanship and meant to last forever. Its pivot and counterweight still move effortlessly after so many years of disuse and neglect.
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After Refurbishment
The Updated Find: The flag pole was not easy to restore, but Jay managed to bring it back to its original glory. Decades of exposure meant that Jay had to take its base apart bolt by bolt, sandblast and paint every piece, and then put it all back together again. The result is a beautifully restored piece of Americana.
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Johnsonville Village, East Haddam, CT
The Abandoned Building: Once a successful 19th-century mill village, Johnsonville, CT was purchased in the 1960s by Ray Schmitt, an early advocate of historic preservation. Schmitt even moved other endangered historic structures to the area to try and recreate a living Victorian town complete with a church, one-room schoolhouse and general store. Schmitt's death in the 1990s left the entire property empty, and the deteriorating ghost town is now a representative of his unfulfilled dream.
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Johnsonville Village, East Haddam, CT
The Abandoned Building: Once a successful 19th-century mill village, Johnsonville, CT was purchased in the 1960s by Ray Schmitt, an early advocate of historic preservation. Schmitt even moved other endangered historic structures to the area to try and recreate a living Victorian town complete with a church, one-room schoolhouse and general store. Schmitt's death in the 1990s left the entire property empty, and the deteriorating ghost town is now a representative of his unfulfilled dream.
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Amaral Motors Barns, Newtown, CT
The Abandoned Building: The Peck Family dairy barns hold a secret. Built in the 1850s, the barns are already historic structures, but their interiors are full of a mass of vintage car parts -- and even entire vehicles going back to the early 20th century. These pieces are the heritage of an early car dealership that purchased the barns in the 1930s and filled them with decades worth of auto pieces and memorabilia. With the barns facing demolition and the land sold, this museum of automotive history faced destruction until it was saved at the last minute.
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German Masonic Lodge, Tappan, NY
The Abandoned Building: Built in 1909, the Masonic Retirement Home in Tappan, New York holds the tightly guarded secrets of the the oldest fraternal organization on the world, the Freemasons. Founded in 928, the rites and rituals of the Masons are passed down to members verbally, and any hope of decoding their secrets lies inside the majestic building, which also contained a chapel, ballroom and infirmary when it was in operation. However, the building has been abandoned since 1996, so it is unclear what kind of relics might be hidden in the massive space.
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Majestic Hotel, Hot Springs, AR
The Abandoned Building: When it was built in 1902, the Majestic Hotel was the pinnacle of luxury, and Hot Springs, AR was a vacationer's paradise. However, the hotel's elegant surface hid a seamy underbelly of illegal gambling with mobsters like Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel battling for control of its casino resorts. When the police finally closed the casinos, the crooks and the gamblers fled to Vegas, leaving the Majestic to wither from declining tourism. Today, the empty hotel is a decayed relic of the Jazz Age.
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Vermont Marble CO, Proctor, VT
The Abandoned Building: From the U.S. Supreme Court to the Jefferson Memorial, almost every major government building or memorial in Washington, DC was fashioned partly by the Vermont Marble Company. The decline of the local marble industry finally closed the business in the 1990s, but the building's remaining blueprints and tools reverberate with the history of the marble mill that carved some of our nation's architectural treasures.
